Yearly Archives: 2020

Going for the gold

Sometimes you see a LEGO model that uses an odd piece, and you can immediately tell–no matter how well it is integrated–that the model was designed specifically to showcase that piece. And at first, I thought that was the case with this striking gold and trans-blue Vic Viper from LEGO set designer Chris Perron. I glanced at it and thought, of course, it’s built around the use of those giant trans-blue Aquazone doors from 1995! But then I saw the Insectoid wings on the front and had to reconsider. Or wait, it’s absolutely covered in gold Nexo Knight tiles. Maybe those? I don’t know, I give up. What I do know, though, is that as zany as this ship is, somehow it works. The fact that there’s really only two colors visible ties it all together in a truly remarkable way.

Oh, and Chris says it was the gold tiles that kicked the whole thing off.

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LEGO unveils the legendary off-road Technic 42122 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon [News]

LEGO today unveiled the latest lineup in the new wave of Technic sets to be released next year with the introduction to yet another brand collaboration with Jeep featuring the Wrangler Rubicon. The set is slated to be released on January 1st on LEGO.com globally and priced at USD 49.99 | CAN 69.99 | GBP 44.99.

Click to have a closer look at the Wrangler Rubicon

The board game Azul comes to life in LEGO

Toltomeja and I share not one, but two hobbies. We both love playing board games. Toltomeja’s favorite game is Azul, a game which I play quite often myself. Their rendition of the game in LEGO bricks is instantly recognizable. Even if you are not familiar with the game you can still appreciate this creation for what it is, an amazing build with lots of interesting building techniques and a very pleasing aesthetic. They even managed to improve the game board by adding insert slots for the little game cubes. To top it all off they even built the table on which the game board is resting, complete with wood grain and everything.

2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 3

Happy holidays to all of our fellow LEGO builders! As is tradition, we at The Brothers Brick will be opening our advent calendars as we count down to Christmas. We’ll also be sharing commentary on each one, which will be both insightful and hilarious!

This year we have new Harry Potter, Star Wars, City and Friends advent calendars to open! We will be sharing images of the new calendars every day through Christmas. Let’s see what there is to open on Day 3!

Click to see the LEGO Advent Calendars Day 3

The Secret of the Sphinx

Johnny Thunder is a theme that always had my interest. He was LEGO’s Indiana Jones before they started producing licensed sets. Johnny has seen it all. From Egypt to the jungle straight to Dino Island. He even went on an Orient Expedition. Ruben Ras shows us an update for LEGO set Sphinx Secret Surprise. Ruben’s rendition of this set is instantly recognizable. Everything is there! The Sphinx, the tent, the desert car, and the obelisk covered in brick-built (!) hieroglyphs. As if that were not enough he even swapped the raised base plate for a brick-built base. Of course, this ‘set’ comes with all the main characters: Baron von Barron, Dr. Charles Lightning, Johnny Thunder, Lord Sam Sinister, Miss Gail Storm, Pharaoh Hotep, and a skeleton mummy. Every single character got an update. The best thing about this has to be that not a single sticker was used.

It’s spring, springtime again

This past spring was pretty memorable, to say the least, but here’s to a more hopeful beginning. So what better way to celebrate the incoming season than a floral LEGO build that won’t cause a fit of pollen allergies? There’s much to love about the House of Flowers Konoyaro, from its striking dark red brickwork to its smaller details, like the Unikitty lupines. And aside from the Tudor-esque jettied and structural walls, the house is virtually void of 1x bricks. Instead, Konoyaro has opted for a variety of plate techniques, most notably stacked at the corners for a meticulous brick texture effect. You can also find more plates staggered at the base of the small bay window and surprisingly, in the loosely sculpted trees upfront. But my favorite detail by far is the brick-built front door. It’s a classy alternative to prefabricated doors that I’ll be taking note of for future inspiration.

We’re no stranger to Konoyaro’s vibrant and textural brick building style. Dive into our archives to find their Little Mermaid build we’ve featured this past September!

LEGO celebrates 25th anniversary of LEGO video games with 10-part Bits N’ Bricks podcast [News]

December 2020 marks the 25th anniversary since the LEGO company’s first video game released. To celebrate the milestone, the company has produced a 10-part podcast series called Bits N’ Bricks that walk through the history of the plastic brick company’s foray into digital games, from Minecraft to LEGO Island and the LEGO Star Wars games, and everything in between. LEGO says they’ve been working on the show for more than a year, and have interviewed at least 120 people and researched more than 50 games in the course of production. The podcasts will be released weekly, with the inaugural episode launching today. The first episode is actually a teaser that’s not part of the main 10-part series, and along with a Christmas special in a few weeks, means the whole series will run for 12 weeks.

The podcast will be hosted by journalist Brian Crecente and documentarian Ethan Vincent. Crecente has a long history with video game journalism, having founded Kotaku and co-founded Polygon, and Vincent likewise has an impressive resume as an Emmy Award-winning documentary director for PBS.

Check out the timeline below to double-check your own LEGO video games knowledge, and you can read the whole press release and check out a gallery of images from classic LEGO games. Most of us probably thought LEGO Island was the first video game with the LEGO logo, but actually the original LEGO video game, released in 1995, was an educational game produced by SEGA for the Japanese market called Fun to Build. It was followed two years later by the much better known LEGO Island. Continue reading →

2020 LEGO Advent Calendars, Day 2

Click to see the LEGO Advent Calendars Day 2

LEGO 40370 Push-Along Steam Engine now available for sale [News]

Earlier this year in March, the 40370 Push-Along Steam Engine was a gift-with-purchase (GWP) that required a spend of USD $99. LEGO has now listed it as a direct for sale item and priced at US $19.99 and CAN $26.99 (Not available in the UK Stores)

Click for more details

Cantinas come in all sizes

Not everyone has the money or space needed to acquire the newest Cantina set, but that didn’t stop ron_mcphatty from applying the magic microscale treatment to this iconic location that was once referred to as a wretched hive of scum and villainy. The scene includes all vehicles and other details as the official set, including both moister evaporators, Greedo’s ship, and even has Luke’s speeder.

Not only does this model capture many of the details that make it’s larger inspiration such a fantastic model, it even opens up just like it.

Space themes on wheels

Generally, when one thinks about yore’s classic space themes, big spaceship builds come to mind and occasionally a tiny rover. The G Brix gives us something different – a very large LEGO rover which can be flipped over, each side with its own aesthetic, depending on your mood it can be Blacktron or the Space Police.

The space police portion of the build uses vibrant translucent red elements, including the cockpit, and brilliant blue elements such as tiles and wing pieces. Of course, there are some distinguishing printed “police” tiles and slopes.

Now flip the build over and you get a very cool blacktron build complete in the black and yellow color scheme. Signature elements also included here are the yellow trans-clear cockpit and the printed slope with the blacktron logo.

This vehicle is a model and an RC car as well that can be controlled through an app. Overall it is an awesome build for any fan of classic space themes villainous or heroic.

LEGO reveals Series 21 (71029) minifigures featuring a Space Police Guy, Beekeeper, Ladybug Girl and more [News]

LEGO revealed today on their social media platforms the upcoming Collectible Minifigure Series 21. Consisting of 12 Minifigures instead of the usual 16 or more, the reasons for the reduced number of blind packs is not apparent at the moment. The minifigures will be priced at USD $4.99 | CAN $4.99 and available on 1st January 2021.

Continue reading →

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